Within an optimal contracting framework we analyse some important aspects of debt structure: the number of creditors a company borrows from; the allocation of security interests among creditors; and inter-creditor covenants that govern renegotiation of debt contracts. The key to our analysis is...

One of the main decisions facing firms is that of a choice of a capital structure, and in particular the choice of debt versus equity. Models where capital structure matters have focused either on the incentive approach, where agency problems stemming from the separation between ownership and...